The album starts off with a short intro. The pitter-patter of rain and whispers, followed by somewhat creepy, spine-chilling vocals from Brink. It then dives right into the first song, Prayers, a particularly heavy song which starts out with a brutal scream, and goes right into crunchy guitars. This is one of the highlights of the album for sure, combining deep and brutal screams and powerful singing with a oddly catchy chorus.

The next song is and will probably remain my favorite In This Moment song. The title track of the album is accurately named. The song is beautiful with a tragic feeling to it. The vocals are mostly clean, although there is some screaming near the end. Brink sings with emotion and the track has an overall atmospheric feel to it, but is still fairly heavy.

The rest of the album continues in the same vein, some heavy songs and some a little softer. One thing that really stands out, thought, is the absolute emotion that Maria Brink sings with. You can really feel her anger during the screaming parts, and the sadness during others. Unfortunately, this is hardly a happy album, with some deep and emotive lyrics (while The Dream, on the other hand, has a much lighter atmosphere).

There is a theatrical element to this album, strangely enough. Some songs are introduced with whispers or soft (and sometimes creepy) vocal lines. Other times, Brink either sings or speaks some lines as if she’s acting on a stage. At one point during Legacy of Odio, she sounds as if she’s actually trying to scream the lines out through sobs. In the breakdown of Ashes, she delivers some lines that are very reminiscent of some sort of biblical apocalypse.

My one criticism is that the album gets a little repetitive toward the end. Most songs follow the same format of verse-chorus, and a large number of songs rely on a memorable breakdown or bridge to stand out rather than the chorus, which can make some tracks a little dull until somewhere in the middle. What varies is where Maria decides to scream and where to sing, which saves a few songs from being completely forgotten.

Despite that, this is a great album. The standout tracks are definitely the first two, Prayers and Beautiful Tragedy, as well as Ashes, Legacy of Odio, Next Life, and Circles.

In This Moment deserves all the success it can get. Brink is an amazing vocalist, and the other musicians are no less than professional. Although the amount of screaming is sharply reduced on The Dream and the sound on that album is much softer, this band has the potential to be even bigger that it is now. Let’s hope for some more great work from this band!

8.5 / 10